Archive for the ‘Merkur XR4Ti’ tag

Though the name Uwe Bahnsen may not be familiar to most enthusiasts on this side of the pond, his automotive designs for the Ford Motor Company are instantly recognizable on either side of the Atlantic. Bahnsen was the stylist behind such memorable vehicles as the second-generation Mercury Capri (launched in 1973), the Ford Sierra (which would appear here as the Merkur XR4Ti) and the Ford Scorpio (sold here as the Merkur Scorpio). Following a 28-year career at Ford, Bahnsen became a director at Switzerland’s Art Center College of Design in Vevey, later joining the International Council of Societies of Design as its president. Bahnsen died in France on July 30 at age 83.

Born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1930, Bahnsen studied at Hamburg, Germany’s, College of Fine Arts. Though painting and sculpting were passions which Bahnsen pursued throughout his life, it was automotive design that ultimately paid the bills. Joining Ford of Europe in 1958, he rose through the ranks to eventually become the automaker’s vice president of design. Among his designs not already mentioned were several generations of Ford Taunus, the Mk III Ford Escort, the Mk III Ford Capri facelift, the Ford Cargo and the 1985 Ford Transit van.

The Sierra, arguably the most significant car developed by Bahnsen and his designers, was foreshadowed by the radical Probe III concept (another design that Bahnsen contributed to). The controversial aerodynamic shape would go on to influence products on this side of the Atlantic as well, including the Ford Taurus, the ninth-generation Ford Thunderbird, the Ford Probe and even the limited-production Ford Mustang SVO. Though eventually a success story for Ford, the rear-drive Sierra fought a long uphill battle against more conventionally styled front-wheel-drive competitors from both GM and European automakers. Former General Motors chairman Roger Smith even went so far as to tell Bob Lutz, then chairman of Ford Europe, that the rear-drive Sierra would be a sales disaster because customers only wanted front-wheel drive. However, history ended up proving Smith wrong – the Sierra remained in production through 1993 and sold in the millions across Europe, South America, South Africa, and New Zealand.

1983 Ford Sierra XR4i. Photo courtesy Ford Media.

Bahnsen’s crowning achievement for Ford was likely the Scorpio, launched in Europe in 1985 and in North America (as the Merkur Scorpio) in 1988. As Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine reported in a 1985 article, the Scorpio was really the first car that Ford gave Bahnsen free rein to design as he saw fit. At 1.87 meters (approximately 74 inches) tall, rear leg room was a critical feature for the designer, and the Scorpio was designed to offer enough for the tallest passengers. It was a costly car to develop, too, with Ford reportedly investing some $1.8 billion into its production. The net result was a roomy car with contemporary lines that also debuted the cost-effective Teves ABS, bringing added safety to the masses at a reasonable price.

At Ford and in his role as a training director at the Art Center College of Design, Bahnsen influenced many designers, including Patrick LeQuement, who would go on to head design for French automaker Renault. As an educator, Bahnsen was said to bring an understanding of the design process that went far beyond styling, illustrating to students the need for harmony between the studio and manufacturing. Art Center College of Design provost Fred Fehlau recalled that Bahnsen had a special gift for interacting with students, saying, “He always had a smile on his face, as if he was getting more from them than they were getting from him. But he never let on.”

Bahnsen is survived by his wife Maureen, as well as a legacy of products wearing the blue oval badge.

In the early 1980s, looking to spice up its product offerings in the United States (and to counter the growing success of the BMW 3 Series), the Ford Motor Company again turned to a product from its European catalog for help. Not satisfied with simply selling a new model through Lincoln Mercury dealers, Ford even went to the trouble of launching a new brand, Merkur, to market its premium European wares. When the first Merkur XR4Ti models hit U.S. showrooms in 1985, one thing was absolutely certain: No Lincoln-Mercury dealer had ever seen anything like it.

That’s not to say that Ford and Lincoln Mercury dealerships lacked experience selling European Ford models. The first-generation Mercury Capri, sold from 1970 through 1978, quickly established a fan base among U.S. buyers, and Ford tried the same recipe with its European compact, the Fiesta, in 1976. From a financial perspective, neither was a huge success for the automaker, but the first-generation Capri did deliver buyers that otherwise would have shopped elsewhere (including foreign brands).

Ford’s Executive Vice President of International Operations, Bob Lutz, had the same goal in mind when he initiated a project to import the European Ford Sierra into the United States as a Merkur (the German name for Mercury), to be sold through select Lincoln Mercury dealerships. The Sierra would lead the charge of European products, and early plans called for a full range of Merkur vehicles to be marketed by the chosen Lincoln Mercury outlets.

The first obstacle faced by Ford was the car’s name: General Motors owned both the Sierra and Ciera names, prompting Ford to use the car’s trim level as its name. In Europe, the sportiest variant of the Sierra was the XR4i; as U.S.-specification cars would be getting a turbocharged engine to cope with added weight of changes required for federalization (nearly 300 pounds), the new Merkur model would debut as the XR4Ti, with T denoting “turbocharged.”

In Europe, Ford Sierra XR4i models used a 2.8-liter Cologne V-6, but there was concern over the engine’s power output and ability to meet contemporary U.S. emissions standards. Instead, Ford opted to use a very familiar engine between the XR4Ti’s front fenders: the turbocharged 2.3-liter four-cylinder that had already been used for the Thunderbird Turbo Coupe and the Ford Mustang SVO. In normally-aspirated form, the 2.3-liter four-cylinder had been used to power vehicles ranging from the Pinto through the Courier pickup, and its durability was well established.

While the XR4Ti lacked the intercooler used on the Mustang SVO, 14 pounds of boost still helped the overhead-cam engine produce 175 horsepower when mated to the available five-speed manual transmission (though XR4Ti models equipped with the optional three-speed automatic made just 145 horsepower on 10 pounds of boost). That was good enough to give manual transmission models a 0-60 MPH time of under eight seconds, on the way to a top speed of 130 MPH.

The 1988 Merkur lineup: Scorpio (foreground) and XR4Ti (background).

The ride was designed to deliver an equal blend of comfort and handling, and the front-engine, rear-drive XR4Ti benefited from four-wheel independent suspension plus front and rear stabilizer bars. To ensure a plush feel for occupants, the car received relatively soft dampers and springs (oddly enough, based on development feedback from F1 icon Jackie Stewart), giving the car somewhat pronounced body roll in corners. Likely as a concession to cost, Ford opted to use disc brakes on the XR4Ti’s front wheels only, and never offered a limited-slip differential, even as an optional accessory.

The car’s styling was initially defined by two elements: the large biplane rear wing, and the “polycarbonate anti-abrasion system” used on lower body panels. Both were functional design traits, helping the XR4Ti achieve a drag coefficient of just 0.33. Neither helped the car win fans among U.S. buyers, and in 1988 Ford changed to a single rear spoiler and a monochrome paint scheme.

Despite a marketing campaign that included a 13-minute marketing video explaining the car to customers, U.S. consumers didn’t know what to make of the XR4Ti or its parent brand, Merkur. Neither name resonated with U.S. buyers, and most couldn’t even pronounce the brand name correctly. Worse, sales staff used to selling Mercury Grand Marquis and Lincoln Town Car models really didn’t understand how to pitch a quirky European import to their customers, and limiting distribution to a maximum of just 800 dealerships (600 in the brand’s final years) did nothing to help Merkur sales.

Though Ford had optimistically projected sales of 15,000 units annually, the Merkur XR4Ti’s best year came in 1986, when 13,559 units were sold. Sales fell to 7,352 units in 1987 and 6,283 units in 1988. Even the 1988 addition of the Merkur Scorpio luxury sedan to the brand’s lineup did little to boost XR4Ti sales, which plummeted to just 2,870 units in 1989, the car’s final year.

No single factor was responsible for the discontinuation of the Merkur XR4Ti. Its ambitious sales price at launch ($16,503, or roughly $35,200 today) didn’t help, especially since the Merkur brand was an unknown in the United States. A rising German Deutsche Mark and shrinking U.S. dollar narrowed slim margins even further, making construction of the car (contracted to Karmann in Osnabrück, Germany) cost prohibitive. Finally, pending federal safety regulations for the 1990 model year would have required the addition of airbags and other safety features, necessitating an expensive re-engineering process.

The Probe III concept, which would form the basis of the Ford Sierra’s styling. Image courtesy of Ford Motor Company.

In the span of five years, Ford managed to sell just 42,464 XR4Ti models in the U.S. and Canada. Merkur models still have a small but loyal following, and the Merkur Club of America hosts both an annual meet and an active message board. Perhaps the car’s true shortcoming was timing; as Cadillac is showing with its newly launched ATS, the demand for a European-influenced, rear-drive luxury car with performance overtones is still there. Assuming, of course, that consumers can identify with the brand name behind it.

We chose the Ford Taurus as the first entry in our Class of 1986 series because it’s generally hailed as the most revolutionary car in America at the time. Of course, as many students of 1980s automobile history already know, the Taurus derived much of its design from another revolutionary car, the Sierra by Ford of Europe, which did make it to the U.S. domestic market, though under an assumed name: Merkur XR4Ti.

Ford of Europe introduced the Sierra in late 1982, followed by its three-door hatchback performance variant, the XR4i in 1983. Though endowed with rear-wheel drive, an independent rear suspension and the familiar Cologne 2.8L V-6, its radical styling kept it from selling like hotcakes. Nevertheless, Bob Lutz, at the time the man to see at Ford of Europe, came up with the idea of bringing the XR4i across the pond to the United States. Though some have posited that he did so to satisfy Lincoln-Mercury dealers clamoring for a hot turbocharged hatchback similar to the Mustang SVO to sell (ignoring the fact that they already had the Capri), as Richard A. Johnson wrote in “Six Men Who Built the Modern Auto Industry,” Lutz simply wanted to market the XR4i in America to allow Ford to directly combat BMW and Audi in the German import market.

Thus the hatchback debuted in the United States in 1985 as the Merkur XR4Ti, available only with a turbocharged, non-intercooled Brazilian-built version of the 2.3L fuel-injected engine that powered the Mustang SVO. Backed with either a C3 three-speed automatic transmission or Type 9 five-speed manual transmission, the engine was rated at either 145hp with the automatic or 175hp with the manual. Marketed through Lincoln-Mercury dealerships, the XR4Ti sold for about $17,000 – $18,000, slightly higher than the contemporary BMW 318i. While it made Car and Driver’s 10 Best list in 1985, it too failed to sell like hotcakes, with just 13,599 sold in 1986 (14,315 according to some sources). Continued through the 1989 model year, Lincoln-Mercury dealers sold just 42,464 XR4Tis altogether.

That, of course, makes an XR4Ti sighting a fairly uncommon occurrence nowadays. But does that translate into collectibility? That is, would you search out an XR4Ti for your garage dedicated to 1986 vehicles? Or does its styling still need some time to grow on you?

Note: I write up driving impressions of virtually every car I photograph, within a couple of days of the drive, so everything is fresh in my memory. Occasionally, because of the constraints of format (ie, buyers’ guide) the prepared text doesn’t run. Now, thanks to the joys of the blogosphere, it can.

Slide inside, and discover that while it looks great in photos, the interior can use a bit of help. It looks roomy but is a little tight for the broad of shoulder, and the leather seating encourages you to slip around rather than stay clamped down. The important gauges (150 mph speedo, tach, boost) are front and center, but nearly everything else is reduced to an idiot light. The odometer gives off a whiff of low-self-esteem: it’s only five digits, after all. There’s some ergonomic weirdness as well: activate the headlights at the right hand, window switches in the console, that sort of thing. And some of the plastics used inside have no business being in a $20,000 car today, much less 20 years ago—I feared cracking the door pull as I grabbed it to shut myself in.

Don’t read into this that Ford’s foreign flyer feels flimsy: far from it. Get going, and there’s plenty of poise and solidity as we storm the back roads and freeways of Riverside, California. In our half hour of playtime, it never put a wheel wrong and didn’t even squeal a tire. But for a car weighing nearly a ton and a half (minus the owner and your big-chunks-of-beef-and-noodles editor behind the wheel), even at two trips around the odometer, this Merkur retains a surprising pace. The clutch is remarkably light, the shifter offers a slightly long throw, and a couple of hundred thousands of miles of shifts have taken their toll on the detents, but you’ll never miss a shift. Steering through the chubby two-spoke wheel is plenty quick, offering tons of feel with virtually no resistance.

And the acceleration is remarkable. Boost starts rolling in around 2,000 rpm, and by 2,750 you’re all in—and hurtling forward at a ridiculous rate of speed. This engine is rated just 175 horsepower? Really? Maybe it’s the boost making up for lost time off idle that makes it seem like so much more. Granted, anything north of 4,500 rpm thrashes harder than a Sepultura CD, making the 6,200 rpm redline a climb only for those who enjoy abusing machinery and eardrums alike. (We dared not venture further north than five grand on our drive.) Still, shifting at four and a half will keep you in boost and on the move. At the same time, at around-town speeds, it doesn’t feel like it wants to get out from under you; some turbos of the period want to be fast and furious at all revs, even off idle, but Ford’s four-cylinder will let you do as you see fit. Sustained high-speed cruising is effortless.

We’ve driven plenty of heavier, more powerful things, and just because something has a better power-to-weight ratio doesn’t mean you can’t sense its heft as you slide around the road. The Merkur has a deftness of touch about it that belies its size, a gentility about it. It prefers tiptoeing to stomping; driving it is the difference between playing piano (or typing, for that matter) with your fingertips or mashing your digits into the keys. It has a grace that modern ponycars (yes, we’re looking at you, new Mustang) can’t hope to match.

For a buyers’ guide on the Merkur XR4Ti and more pictures of this 200,000-mile, original-owner XR4Ti, check out the August ‘08 issue of Hemmings Sports and Exotics magazine; for back issue sales, call 800-227-4373.